Talks to reach a deal to resurrect the peace process will move to the US next week as the North's key politicians travel to Washington for St Patrick's Day.
A five-strong Sinn Féin delegation including Mr Gerry Adams, Mr Martin McGuinness, Mr Pat Doherty, Mr Martin Ferris and Mr Gerry Kelly, will travel to the US on Thursday.
The Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, is also to visit the US later in the week. Both Mr Adams and Mr Trimble will hold talks with key US officials involved in the peace process.
The Sinn Féin president is also due to meet members of Congress at Capitol Hill on Thursday. He will then fly to Chicago. Mr McGuinness will visit New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle.
Sinn Féin's US director, Ms Rita O'Hare, said: "We will be speaking to people in Washington who have had a direct role in the peace process and to Irish-Americans right across the US who share our vision of peace, justice and equality in a united Ireland."
The UUP is due to release details of Mr Trimble's itinerary on Monday. Sanctions remain the biggest stumbling block to a new peace deal in the North, and UUP sources yesterday said there had been no progress in reaching agreement. "It is really up to Sinn Féin to move on this one, and we have seen nothing yet," said a source.
The DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, said any sanctions secured by the UUP would be ineffective anyway. "Mr Trimble seeks to have the Secretary of State, with the possible assistance of a so-called ceasefire monitoring body, determine whether the IRA has breached its ceasefire," he said.
"Would anyone really rely on the Secretary of State to chuck Sinn Féin out? If anyone does, they have a slender grip on history and reality. There has been a provision in the Northern Ireland Act since the Assembly was set up that permitted the Secretary of State to submit such a determination to the Assembly.
"Never has it been used, in spite of the Secretary of State knowing all the offences carried out by the Provisional IRA, including its Stormont spy ring."
Meanwhile, President Bush's special adviser on the North, Mr Richard Haass, has said the US administration will support any international body set up to monitor paramilitary ceasefires and other aspects of the Belfast Agreement.
Mr Haass told the BBC: "We have said all along we are prepared to do our part." He added that an American was a member of the decommissioning verification body and they would be happy to nominate an American for any new monitoring body.